Larger format printers

[raptor1956]

So my two year old Epson WF-7620 just shit the bed and although I have a backup Brother printer it's limited to standard (8.5"x11") and legal paper (8.5"x14") so I guess I need to start looking for a larger format printer for CAD drawings and perhaps photos.  The WK-7620 was great at first and since both the printer portion and the scanner can handle 13"x19" and the output was good I was happy -- at first.  But, several periods of extended non-use and the classic Epson clogged print head issue arose and now I'm getting the dreaded 0x97 error that apparently is an indication of a hardware issue. 

The thing with replacing the WF-7620 is that finding a printer that can both print and scan 13x19 is rare and a 13x19 scanner by itself is way more expensive than the WF-7620 was.  I guess I could hang onto the WF-7620 for scanning duties and then add a new printer for printing but I don't have unlimited space.

So, any ideas on what printers or printer/scanner would be a worthy replacement?


Brian

[BrianHG]

Arrrrg, Tabloid sized scanning and printing together... This means BIG$.

Unfortunately, my more modern HP paintjet has had it's share of problems too.  Clogged Cyan, a new print head + super expensive paint cartridges (using cheap ones just clogged the print heads) & the printers insistence of not printing when a single color is low has pissed me off with the added problem of the printer continuously failing to grab the 11inx17in sheets even after cleaning the pickup rollers many times has ended my affair with paintjets.  My 12 year old Epson, which I'm sorry I gave away 2 years ago, was a beautiful but slow 17inx22in printer.  I gave it away after buying the HP, but before the HP started giving me all the headaches since I only print large form factor for schematics & PCBs once in awhile.

I looked for color laser tabloid 11x17, but to no avail due to price.  I settled on a 225$ Brother color Led/laser 8.5x14.  It has yet to mess up grabbing paper.  You can reset the toner low warning through the panel to empty out the toner before replacing the cartridge & no paint clogs, or, mushy print where I can use highlighter on my printouts without the smudge.

I get my 11x17 or larger prints by printing to an Adobe .pdf & use the poster option in Adobe's acrobat reader and tape 2 pages together.  I know it's not elegant, but, the printouts are perfect quality on plain office paper.

As for Tabloid sized printers, until paintjets stop clogging due to the printer just sitting there, I cannot recommend buying one as you would just go through the same old experience again no mater the make or model.

If you have the $$$ and workload which requires it, look for a color laser tabloid printer and only use the manufacturers toner cartridges, no DIY refills.  As long as you can software reset the toner cartridges out of toner gauge as a feature in the printer control panel, you will get double the B&W and triple the color page count as described in the printer's user guide.  Strategically color use on schematic should double these figures as the figures are averages for full color image prints, not electronic schematics.  Unlike some paintjets which will destroy the printhead by bubbles & drying out, it is safe to run a toner based laser printer until the cartridge is empty.

I personally don't like exacto blading 1 edge of an 8.5x11 print and taping it to the next sheet to make a really close to 11x17, but, it turns out to be less of a pain than dealing with a paintjet's problems when the day comes you actually need a print to print...

[IanB]

Depending on how much you want to print you could just put the files on a USB stick and take them to a retail store like Office Depot, Staples or Fedex/Kinko for printing?

[BrianHG]

I know in my case, I'm working on a schematic & need a printout right away to check off and verify the design with paper in hand and a highlighter or 2 and pen.  After fixing things up, I like a reprint I go through it again.

Now, I can engineer through the night like this when I get that occasional contract job which pays big$ to have the work finished by the end of the week.  Running out to office depot at 2am, then again at 4am, just to have a print, and loose my workflow would make it impossible to complete.   (Such jobs are usually to fix up a lemon schematic by someone else who quit at the last moment.  I get paid to catch errors on someone else's work who doesn't print out their work for proper verification as I find lemon duplicate net names, nets on the wrong port, bad pinouts on the custom inputed ICs.  This pays my bills and gets me new engineering contracts as I demonstrate all the errors not found by the original engineer.)

[Brumby]

The workflow issue is important.  A 2 minute break while you print a few sheets allows you to make a cuppa, but not lose your "place" in the work.  A 20 minute trip out in the night is not pleasant and will shred your focus.

I, too, have had my fair share of inkjet hair-pulling and I have only one inkjet around me now - an A3 capable Canon.  The tanks have tanked - not through use, but from non-use - through preparation cycles when I do fire it up.  Very frustrating - and I would have to wonder about keeping it, except for the fact that I can use it to print on magnetic media (the sort you use for fridge magnets).

For all other printing, I have a Samsung colour laser MFC and an old Kyocera B&W laser which is the workhorse.  I've never had any issues with either of these that a clean or new toner didn't fix.


I would suggest that if the work could justify it, getting a large format laser sounds like it might be worth the pain.  Having it sit idle for long periods isn't going to offer you anywhere near the problems the inkjet ones have.

For the cost, though, sticky tape and a knife might be hard to beat - especially if the printing is for in-house use.  Presentation to a client is a different matter.

[CatalinaWOW]

I have used the sticky tape and Xacto knife to solve my large format needs.  If I needed it a bit more often I would make a jig that would reduce the effort to a fraction of a minute.  The local office supply store resolves the customer ready printouts.  I have better uses for the money and the desk space than a large format printer.

[BradC]

I have a HP laser 5500 for A3 stuff and a DJ750C+ for A0. The laser is easy and a set of carts lasts me a couple of years. The inkjet needs a bit more maintenance but there is no substitute for being able to bash out a large format print at short notice, plus because of my industry sometimes I just can't outsource a print (even if supervised).

Once I learned to take the cartridges out and store them properly when not in use I took a heap of routine maintenance away.

I had an A0 laser printer/scanner for a few years, but it was about the size of a small car and needed a 10KW power feed. I don't scan anything that large these days. Inkjet for day to day stuff is just expensive and fussy.

[nctnico]

How about getting a color laserprinter? Just keep the Epson for scanning. In my experience inkjet printers suck for occasional printing.

[Brumby]

How about getting a color laserprinter? Just keep the Epson for scanning. In my experience inkjet printers suck for occasional printing.

This:

I guess I could hang onto the WF-7620 for scanning duties and then add a new printer for printing but I don't have unlimited space.

[edavid]

So my two year old Epson WF-7620 just shit the bed and although I have a backup Brother printer it's limited to standard (8.5"x11") and legal paper (8.5"x14") so I guess I need to start looking for a larger format printer for CAD drawings and perhaps photos.  The WK-7620 was great at first and since both the printer portion and the scanner can handle 13"x19" and the output was good I was happy -- at first.  But, several periods of extended non-use and the classic Epson clogged print head issue arose and now I'm getting the dreaded 0x97 error that apparently is an indication of a hardware issue. 

I have a Brother MFC-J6720DW, which is very similar to the WF-7620.  In 3 years I have had no head clogs, despite very infrequent printing.  (I have noticed that it does periodic head cleaning even if you don't print,which may be the reason.)  So, you might consider one of the many Brother tabloid MFC models.

I have also had no clogs with my 6 year old Canon Pixma Pro 9000 II, so I can recommend that model if you decide you want a tabloid printer that can do excellent photo prints.  It would be overkill if you only want to print drawings.

[raptor1956]

Epson inkjet are particularly bad for clogging as they tend to be pigment based versus dye based.  The quality of the printed image tends to be better and much longer lasting making them preferable for photography, but you do need to use it more or less constantly to keep ink flowing through the head.  I had imagined getting an even larger format printer for still prints but unless you use the thing just about every day the heads will clog with pigment printers like Epson.

I have an older Brother laser printer, the MFC-9840CDW, that works with legal and letter sized paper but it's not going to do larger that that.  I can hold onto the Epson for its scanner and probably get by doing intermediate prints to the Brother and then, if needed, get larger prints made at Kinkos etc.


Brian

[GreyWoolfe]

There are a lot of interesting comments about Epson printers.  I have a WF-3540 for a couple of years now.  I MAY print once or twice a week and I have gone that long at least without printing and have had only 1 clogging problem.  I brought it on myself as I ran out of black and was using the color cartridges to print black for quite awhile before I got around to replacing the cartridge.  Running a couple of cleaning cycles took care of the problem.  I have no excuses on not replacing the cartridges.  My company pays for the ink as it is a dedicated printer and we have a national account with a big box office supply chain.  This one has performed better than the Brother it replaced.

[BradC]

There are a lot of interesting comments about Epson printers.

I think it's often a combination of usage patterns, temperature and humidity. The latter two varying significantly by location.

[Brumby]

I had an Epson printer.  The usual issues with clogging - that were resolved by periodic printing (of just the nozzle check pattern) or the occasional cleaning cycle.

What made me throw it out in anger and disgust was when it complained about genuine cartridges NOT being genuine. Two sets in fact.

Replaced it with a Canon PRO-100 inkjet.  No problems with it yet (2 years) - but it does go through ink just looking after itself.  It has used more ink doing this than on prints (which is annoying), but it hasn't really been used as frequently as I anticipated.

[cdev]

In the past I was able to unclog stuck epson printheads by putting the clogged cartridges into a sealed ziplock bag with the head sitting on a damp paper towel. just let it sit in there for a while. A few days is best. Then refill the cartridge with a bit more ink and see if it works. Adding a little IPA seems to help too.

[BradC]

In the past I was able to unclog stuck epson printheads by putting the clogged cartridges into a sealed ziplock bag with the head sitting on a damp paper towel. just let it sit in there for a while. A few days is best. Then refill the cartridge with a bit more ink and see if it works. Adding a little IPA seems to help too.

Try adding a bit of ammonia to that mix. I bought some specific printhead cleaning fluid which worked a treat. I did a bit of digging and it's just distilled water, IPA and ammonia. Also great for getting spilled ink off stuff if you make a mess when re-filling.
My DJ750 uses the all-in-1 ink+head assembly. For particularly stubborn clogs I put a bit of that fluid in a coke bottle cap and sit the print head in there. Give it 10 minutes or so and the most stubborn clog gives way.

[cdev]

You can make nice, very professional looking printed front panels for electronics equipment by laminating your design (using a larger print if your device is big)  and then gluing it to your front panel.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/graphic-overlay-for-front-panel-where-or-how/

[BradC]

You can make nice, very professional looking printed front panels for electronics equipment by laminating your design (using a larger print if your device is big)  and then gluing it to your front panel.

Or print it on an A4 Avery label, put a good clear adhesive contact on the front, cut it out with a sharp knife or guillotine and have a neat looking self-adhesive sticker.

[Vtile]

Hmm. Is plotters out of question, like HP DesignJets?
Atleast the old ones share the dry-out problems like any bubble-ink technology. Had one sitting DJ450 on the corner of the room. Need to figure some use for it. When it still were in production use earning money the trick were to print rainbow colored post stamp once a week if there were no other use.. customers ordered drawing sets only once per project so only approx. once a month.

[BradC]

Hmm. Is plotters out of question, like HP DesignJets?
Atleast the old ones share the dry-out problems like any bubble-ink technology. Had one sitting DJ450 on the corner of the room. Need to figure some use for it. When it still were in production use earning money the trick were to print rainbow colored post stamp once a week if there were no other use.. customers ordered drawing sets only once per project so only approx. once a month.

I found an old HP tech note that said to take the carts out and wrap them in cling film. I take mine out, put a layer of film over the head and pop them into a cartridge clip, then store in a ziplock bag right side up. When I take them out 6 months later to use them don't have unclog, run multiple cleaning cycles or bleed them with a syringe. Suddenly my DJ750 is a lot more practical as I can really use it only when required and not stuff around wasting ink while unclogging carts.

[Vtile]

That is a really nice one, I will try to salvage what I can and see if I can get it printing again, if yes I'll put em to that kind of storage.

Hmm. Is plotters out of question, like HP DesignJets?
Atleast the old ones share the dry-out problems like any bubble-ink technology. Had one sitting DJ450 on the corner of the room. Need to figure some use for it. When it still were in production use earning money the trick were to print rainbow colored post stamp once a week if there were no other use.. customers ordered drawing sets only once per project so only approx. once a month.

I found an old HP tech note that said to take the carts out and wrap them in cling film. I take mine out, put a layer of film over the head and pop them into a cartridge clip, then store in a ziplock bag right side up. When I take them out 6 months later to use them don't have unclog, run multiple cleaning cycles or bleed them with a syringe. Suddenly my DJ750 is a lot more practical as I can really use it only when required and not stuff around wasting ink while unclogging carts.

[A@ron]

You can make nice, very professional looking printed front panels for electronics equipment by laminating your design (using a larger print if your device is big)  and then gluing it to your front panel.

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/graphic-overlay-for-front-panel-where-or-how/

Never knew people did overlays on their equipment. I could pretty easily do up to 8.5x11 or so with my printer, roll laminator and cutter/plotter... who knew